My father worked construction and never held a job for long. Consequently until about ten years old we moved all around the country. By the fifth grade I had attended sixteen different schools. My mother and father split when I was 11 years old and my brother and I were placed in a children's home, education wasn't a big thing with the directors of this place.
You could go to school when your chores were done but if you didn't that was ok because they always had more work for you. I was lucky; I had a 5th grade teacher I had a crush on so I went any chance I got.
My mother remarried when I was starting the 7th grade and took us out of the children's home. I met my wife Jean in the 8th grade and we were best friends. We never dated over the years but were just good friends. She continued to write to me after we moved out of the state.
I already knew everything there was to know by the time I finished the 8th grade and didn't see any reason for continuing school. I joined the Navy three months after turning 16 and stayed for 20 years. A few years after joining the Navy some wise sage convinced me that perhaps I didn't know everything.
I went on to finish high school and even completed some college while still in the Navy. At about this same time I realized I had never met anyone that I liked as well as I liked my buddy from the 8th grade Jean, we got married and still are best friends. We had our 56th anniversary this year.
I retired from the Navy in 1969 and went back to school on the GI Bill. I went to work as a computer programmer in the days before microcomputers. I started painting for recreation. A couple of years later I was offered an opportunity to start a data processing company. That was the end of my painting for the next 30 years.
In 2000 I sold the company and moved to Oroville. My sister lives here and she was having a lot of fun painting, mostly in watercolors. After my house was built and the yard completed I started painting again. In the fall of 2006 I joined the Artist of River Town and have been soaking up knowledge and friends ever since.
